---
title: "30 Years in Distribution, 800 Million in Annual Sales, She Says: There Are No Old Distributors, Only Those Who Fall Behind the Times"
description: "Zhang Meilan, general manager of Shijiazhuang Zhongshan Daily Chemicals, shares how her company, founded in 1985, has thrived through decades of industry changes by embracing transformation and maintaining a customer-centric approach. In 2017, the company achieved sales of 800 million yuan."
author: "袁来"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-07-25"
language: "en"
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# 30 Years in Distribution, 800 Million in Annual Sales, She Says: There Are No Old Distributors, Only Those Who Fall Behind the Times

> Zhang Meilan, general manager of Shijiazhuang Zhongshan Daily Chemicals, shares how her company, founded in 1985, has thrived through decades of industry changes by embracing transformation and maintaining a customer-centric approach. In 2017, the company achieved sales of 800 million yuan.

**There are no old distributors, only those who fall behind the times.**
— Zhang Meilan, General Manager of Shijiazhuang Zhongshan Daily Chemicals
Shijiazhuang Zhongshan Daily Chemicals, founded in 1985, has been in the FMCG distribution business for over 30 years, navigating through the eras of supply and marketing cooperatives, deep distribution, and the current internet B2B age. Despite industry upheavals, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals has stood firm, seeking change while maintaining stability, and actively embracing the times. In 2017, its sales reached 800 million yuan. Recently, New Distribution interviewed Zhang Meilan, General Manager of Shijiazhuang Zhongshan Daily Chemicals Co., Ltd., to see how she has led the company to become a benchmark distributor in the regional market.
In 2005, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals, originally a state-owned enterprise (under the supply and marketing cooperative), was restructured into a joint-stock company following its parent company's reform. Currently, it employs 500 staff and operates four branches in Shijiazhuang, Handan, Xinji, Xinle, and Pingshan. It represents nearly 30 well-known brands including P&G, Unilever, S.C. Johnson, Colgate, Huiyuan, and Lee Kum Kee. It owns 13,000 square meters of warehouse space and over 80 delivery vehicles, covering nearly 8,000 retail points in Shijiazhuang and nearly 4,000 in Handan.
**01**
**Restructuring from State-Owned Enterprise, Releasing Organizational Energy, and Building the "Zhongshan Daily Chemicals" Brand as a Distributor**
In 1985, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals opened its first cosmetics store on the busiest Zhongshan Road in Shijiazhuang, engaging in both retail and wholesale. The 1980s were a period of planned economy. Zhang Meilan recalls that the cosmetics store was booming; salesclerks only needed to hand out goods and collect money, and business was non-stop all day. At its peak, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals operated 12 chain stores.
As the market evolved, in 1994, foreign brands like P&G began seeking distributors across the country. Based on its retail and wholesale foundation, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals became P&G's first distributor in Hebei. At that time, Zhang Meilan was the operations manager for the P&G business.
Subsequently, Unilever and Colgate came on board. Zhongshan Daily Chemicals discovered the distribution business was changing daily, with rapid sales growth. Gradually, the company's overall business shifted toward distribution, building downstream channel networks. By 2000, it represented over 20 first-tier FMCG brands in daily chemicals and food, fully transitioning from a sit-down merchant to a traveling merchant.
In 2005, responding to the reform call, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals stood up as a limited liability company with employee shareholding. At that time, its annual sales were nearly 300 million yuan. After the reform, the company became more flexible. In 2007, it opened three county-level branches in Pingshan, Xinle, and Xinji, further expanding its distribution area. That same year, Zhang Meilan was promoted to deputy general manager, taking full charge of the distribution business.
Zhang Meilan told New Distribution that Zhongshan Daily Chemicals was already a "leading" trading company at the time, but "leading" only meant large sales volume and scale; people didn't know who Zhongshan Daily Chemicals was, only that P&G sold well and Unilever had high volume. Each department negotiated with retailers independently, leveraging the well-known brands they represented to push other brands' business.
After identifying these issues, Zhang Meilan reorganized the organizational functions, set standards and norms, especially for unified external business output, to build the company's brand. She believed that in the past, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals was like fingers; now it needed to clench into a fist. If customers only knew the brands distributed but not the distributor behind them, the company would not last long. Zhongshan Daily Chemicals should not follow the brands; instead, the brands should follow Zhongshan Daily Chemicals.
**02**
**Establishing a Complete Organizational Structure, Compiling Employee Handbooks, and Refined Management**
"Iron camps, flowing soldiers." In Zhang Meilan's view, the camp belongs to Zhongshan Daily Chemicals. Although upstream brand owners have their own teams or managers, ultimately the business is their own. Relying on others won't work; only self-reliance matters. Even though it's a distribution business, it's goods bought with Zhongshan Daily Chemicals' own money. The manufacturer provides the fastest information and the greatest resources, but the business is run by Zhongshan Daily Chemicals itself. She said distributors must be self-reliant and self-strengthening; to forge iron, one must be strong. Always be the controller of the business.
The image above shows the "Enterprise Process and System Compilation" specifically compiled by Zhongshan Daily Chemicals under Zhang Meilan's leadership. It contains complete and comprehensive business sales processes, procurement processes, inventory management processes, etc., setting strict and clear execution standards for each position, ensuring orderly work despite busyness. It is said that this manual is the second edition; the first was published in October 2013, and now new content has been added, including the e-commerce department's operational processes. Zhang Meilan told New Distribution that to establish a professional trading company, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals must have a complete and standardized internal management system, telling employees how to do their jobs. Regardless of performance, first, they must know what their position entails and how to do it. Execute first, then think about improvement. Detail management is crucial for the product distribution business.
At the beginning of 2017, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals introduced Songxing Bainian software services to fully integrate internal and external operations. Standardized frontline business operations, combined with digital tools for process and business analysis, have kept the company's product categories growing positively even under the impact of e-commerce.
In fact, distributors have traditionally focused on external matters: selecting brands, product promotion, manufacturer-distributor games, etc., rarely paying attention to internal operational processes, business operations, and organizational functions. Often, distributors are busy and tired because internal processes and execution standards are not clearly established.
**03**
**Deepening Community Promotion, Actively Embracing the Internet, and Establishing a B2C Micro-Mall**
Transformation and upgrading are an unavoidable topic for current distributors. Zhang Meilan told New Distribution that Zhongshan Daily Chemicals is also transforming, but the transformation is not just because the industry is in a period of change; in fact, they have always been transforming, more precisely, seeking change while maintaining stability. Currently, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals no longer positions itself as a distributor but as a marketing service provider.
Zhang Meilan told New Distribution that Zhongshan Daily Chemicals is preparing community benefit activities around community stores. Soon, it will launch "benefit promotion" activities in 150 communities in Shijiazhuang, combining its own daily chemical products for promotion and sale to community residents. In her view, no app can replace the distributor's service and promotion function. Distributors must have the ability to monetize for retail stores and upstream brands. Specific actions like product display, store beautification, and brand image enhancement cannot be achieved by apps.
Of course, Zhang Meilan does not reject new things. In May 2017, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals cooperated with Alibaba's Retail Link. In June this year, it also applied for JD Daojia and connected with Pinduoduo business. It is also actively contacting the Hui Xiadan platform. In her view, as long as the core function is clearly defined, efforts can be targeted. Internet platforms lack offline marketing capabilities, but Zhongshan Daily Chemicals has them. Let the platforms obtain order information, and Zhongshan Daily Chemicals will provide in-depth services to these small stores.
In June 2017, Zhongshan Daily Chemicals launched a B2C micro-mall business, currently with nearly 7,000 members. Product prices reference JD.com, and some are even slightly lower. The B2C micro-mall generates monthly revenue of over 100,000 yuan. Zhang Meilan told New Distribution that the current micro-mall business is relatively closed; most of the 7,000 members come from internal employee sharing and conversion. The core task now is to train the team's e-commerce capabilities.
**Final Thoughts**
**1. Distributor transformation has become a hot topic, but many distributors often forget the premise of transformation or the core foundation for successful transformation: years of accumulated frontline business teams, store relationships, and promotion capabilities.**
Recently, I communicated with a distributor (who transformed into a B2B platform). After transforming, they disbanded their frontline business team, leaving only five people for maintenance, hoping to drive business through the platform (like JD.com and Alibaba, which have about 3-5 customer managers or city partners in a regional market) using information tools and promotional subsidies.
But in New Distribution's view, this logic is wrong. Information tools can only solve business process connections and data analysis to assist bosses in decision-making. For traditional distributors, this is just icing on the cake. Don't disrupt the distributor's own business system because of B2B. Even after transforming into a B2B platform, the role remains the same: distributor. Recently, teacher Wei Qing also expressed that no B2B giant can do without a "large ground promotion team"; the underlying business system is still based on the eight-step visit, just with added app recommendations and open data analysis. The biggest headaches remain staff motivation, training, assessment, inspection, and efficiency...
**2. "Seeking change while maintaining stability" is the most appropriate and lowest-risk way for distributors to transform and upgrade.** First, implement a system to clarify the overall business logic, put the business information flow online, help distributors understand the source of their business, who creates value for the company, how much sales each store contributes, what proportion of warehousing and distribution costs, how much money is earned today, and how much is expected to increase tomorrow... After clarifying these, check whether frontline business operations are standardized, whether employees know what to do each day, how to do things, and their enthusiasm. In this process, identify core advantages: category management, warehousing and distribution efficiency, frontline execution, or comprehensive cost advantages.
**Extended Reading: Review the exciting reports of "New Distribution 100 People" [Click to View]**
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